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Little circles of grease melted out of them on to the plate, and Tufik, wide-eyed with triumph, sweetly wistful over Tish's tooth, humble and joyous in one minute, stood by the cake plate and fed them to us! I caught Aggie's agonized eye, but there was nothing else to do. Were we not his friends? And had he not made this delicacy for us?
Tish said that proper clothing would make her beautiful; and Aggie, disappearing for a few minutes, came back with her last summer's foulard and a jet bonnet. When the poor thing understood they were for her, she looked almost frightened, the thing being unexpected; and Tufik, in a paroxysm of delight, kissed all our hands and the girl on each cheek.
Under the stoop was a door leading into a cellar, and from this cellar was coming a curious stamping noise and a sound as of an animal in its death throes. Aggie caught my arm. "What's that?" she quavered. I had no time to reply. Tufik had thrown open the door and stood aside to let us pass. "They dance," he said gravely. "There is always much dancing before a wedding.
But one day Tish telephoned in some excitement and said that Tufik was there and wanted us to go to a wedding. "His little sister's wedding!" she explained. "The dear child is all excited. He says it has been going on for two days and this is the day of the ceremony." Aggie was spending the afternoon with me, and spoke up hastily.
She replied in an abstracted tone, which showed where her mind was. "It would be rougher on a camel," she said absently. "Tufik was telling me the other day " Aggie had got her head straight by that time and was holding it with both hands to avoid jarring. She looked goaded and desperate; and, as she said afterward, the thing slipped out before she knew she was more than thinking it.
Charlie Sands put the cigarette on a book under Aggie's nose and stood up. "I guess I'll go," he said. "My nerves are not what they used to be and my disposition feels the change." Tufik had risen and the two looked at each other. I could not quite make out Tufik's expression; had I not known his gentleness I would have thought his expression a mixture of triumph and disdain.
Even in the twilight we saw his face change, his brown eyes brighten, his teeth show in his boyish smile. The taxicab driver had stalled his engine and was cranking it. "Sh!" I said desperately, and we all cowered back into the shadows. Tufik approached, uncertainty changing to certainty. The engine was started now. Oh, for a second of time! He was at the window now, peering into the darkness.
As for me, I roused with a start to find myself sugaring my ice cream. Charlie Sands was delayed that night. He came in about nine o'clock and found Tufik telling us about his home and his people and the shepherds on the hills about Damascus and the olive trees in sunlight.
They have not changed materially in nineteen centuries, and the traveler in their country finds still the life of Biblical times. Something's burning!" Shortly after, Tufik, beaming with happiness and Hannah clearly forgotten, summoned us to the dining-room. Tufik was not a cook. We realized that at once.
She did not look like Tufik and she was tired and dirty from the journey; but she had big brown eyes and masses of dark hair and she spoke not a single word of English. Tufik's joy was boundless; his soft eyes were snapping with excitement; and Aggie, who is sentimental, was obliged to go out and swallow half a glass of water without breathing to keep from crying.
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